More than a dozen people are accused of engaging in an elaborate fraud scheme across the Inland Empire that entailed making false representations to people involved in collisions in order to take their vehicles and hold them “hostage” until receiving insurance payments, authorities said Friday, May 10.
The alleged ringleader was identified as 36-year-old Andre Angelo Reyes of Corona, who worked closely with 35-year-old Anthony Gomez of Jurupa Valley, operator of CA Collision, with repair facilities in San Bernardino County, according to investigators. Reyes allegedly enlisted the help of Esmeralda Parga of Pomona in gleaning the personal information of people listed on more than 3,500 of the pages, investigators said.